Starting from scratch with a problem car... advice needed!

**TristanCSI** · 10-17-2003, 08:48 PM

I have just purchased a 94 Civic LX, and I`m looking forward to taking care of it... however, I have some special problem areas that I don`t know how to deal with.

1- Primer. The car has a large patch of bondo and primer onthe rear bumper/trunk lid, and it`s going to be several months until I can paint it. I have no idea if I should wax over this, or what.

2- Hard water spots. The car was a daily driver for a guy that really didn`t care, so it has about a year of sprinkler system hard water spots built up on the sides. Beyond fine steel wool (which terrifies me) the only thing I can think of is a diluted CLR type mix.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Please note- I don`t have a garage, nor a PC, so I`m on elbow grease and what cleaning products I can pick up at Kragen/Pep Boys/Wal Mart etc.

Thanks again!!

**imported_chpsk8** · 10-17-2003, 09:50 PM

Clay, clay,clay.

CLR is a good paint stripper, so if you go that route, you may wnat to budget for some paint.

Just clay it first and see where you end up.

**shaf** · 10-18-2003, 05:17 PM

I don`t know what I`d do about the bare primer... I`d be tempted to leave it alone and just sand and reprimer it when the time comes, but that`s just my guess.

There is more than one way to deal with water spots depending on if they`re water spot mineral deposits, or water spot etching damage. If it`s the former, another technique is to use vinegar on them. If it`s the latter (and I have a feeling that it is seeing how the car was neglected) then you`ll have to polish them out with something abrasive of appropriate strength. Run some searches on water spots to read up on this. Good luck.

**TristanCSI** · 10-21-2003, 08:42 PM

Thanks for the input all... this morning, by way of testing, I tried some white vinegar on one of the rear view mirrors. It seemed to clear some of the water spots, but I`m afraid I`m going to have to go with a more aggressive treatment. The paint I`m not so worried about, but does anyone have ideas for what to do with etched glass, short of getting new glass?

**shaf** · 10-28-2003, 12:08 AM

Try some glass polish and elbow grease. Hard work, but that might do the trick depending on how bad it is.

**Accumulator** · 10-28-2003, 12:48 PM

TristanCSI- I *STRONGLY* encourage you to take BlackRegal`s advice and get some paint over the primer. If you don`t it *WILL* rust underneath the primer and you`ll have to redo the entire repair, bondo and all. I`d use a color that contrasts with your paint (like black or gray on a white car). It`ll look like a "work in progress and I know what I`m doing"-type repair, as opposed to a crappy "I think I`m done, duh..it almost matches, duh.."-type repair. That`s what *I*`ve done with situations like this. Clean it with PrepSol, scuff it with 360-400 grit, paint with a spraycan before it gets too cold (wait until a sunny day with no rain forcasted for 24 hrs.). If you don`t, I`m afraid you`ll really have a mess by Spring.

No real advice on your glass, but there HAVE been posts on professonal glass repairs that touch on this. Same ole same ole- try a search or two.